Arching Fern
Artist
William Henry Fox Talbot
(English, 1800 - 1877)
Date1852-1857
MediumPhotographic engraving
DimensionsImage: 4 × 2 3/4 inches (10.16 × 6.99 cm)
Sheet: 10 1/8 × 6 11/16 inches (25.72 × 16.99 cm)
Sheet: 10 1/8 × 6 11/16 inches (25.72 × 16.99 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Hall Family Foundation
Object number2005.37.356
Signednone
Inscribednone
MarkingsOn sheet verso, bottom, in pencil: "101984.0002 PM"
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionEngraving of a fern leaf with its stem bending slightly to the left.Exhibition History
Rotation 3. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,
Kansas City, MO, March 20 - August 18,
2008, no cat.
Rotation 22. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, August 10, 2016- January 8, 2017, no cat.
This print is a rare, early example of photomechanical engraving. To make it, William Henry Fox Talbot transferred a photograph of a fern onto a light-sensitized metal plate. The plate’s surface was then chemically treated, etched, inked and printed like a conventional engraving.
Hall Family Foundation, Kansas City, MO, 2005;
Given by the Hall Family Foundation to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2005.
Given by the Hall Family Foundation to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2005.
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